Let me tell you about the most common and most crippling mistake I see brands make when it comes to their brand narrative and marketing content.
One of the biggest mistake brands make is to think that it is their story that matters.
If you are using your website, social media accounts, or sales pitch to tell your story, you are losing money.
Let me assure you. Your customers don’t care about your story. They care about their stories.
Instead of telling their own story, what the best brands do is step into their customer’s story and invite them to a better ending.
When you, as a brand, step into your customer’s story, your focus becomes their desires, their problems, and their success. When your customer sees you are focused on their success, that’s when they start listening to what you have to say. And when you show them you have what they need to solve their problems, that’s when they start buying. When you help them to get what they want, that’s when they tell their friends, family, and others about what you did for them.
The best way to grow your business is to focus relentlessly on your customer’s problems. The more time and energy you spend on solving their problems, the more they will reward you with their business.
So how do you step into your customer’s story?
1. Find out what they want
If you don’t know what it is that your customers want. You need to stop everything until you’ve figured it out. I can tell you they don’t want your product. They almost definitely don’t need it. What they want is what your product does for them, how it makes them feel, and what it says about them and their identity?
If you take the time and figure out what it is your customers really want, you can align your marketing, sales, services, support, everything around helping them get what they want. When you do, you will see a noticeable result.
2. Find out what problem they are experiencing
Your customers are constantly driven to solve their problems. They don’t like being uncomfortable. They don’t like unmet expectations. They don’t like feeling incomplete. They don’t like not having what they want.
The problem is the crux of any story. If there’s no problem, there’s no story.
If there’s no problem, or if your customer isn’t experiencing the problem, they will not act. There’s no reason to act.
Conversely, if you identify what problem they are experiencing, they will take notice.
Here’s the problem most brands have with this step. The closer you are to your business or product, the harder it is to step back from the features, benefits, and values of your offering to ask, what problem does this solve for our customers that they are currently experiencing. It is your responsibility as a brand to draw the link between your offering and their problem. You can’t expect your customers to do it for you.
3. Show them how you can solve their problem
You need to show your customers you understand their problem. Show them you know how it makes them feel. Tell them stories about how you’ve helped others solve the same problem. Then, give them a simple plan that will help them solve that problem as well.
It is at this point that you can share some of your own back story because you will do it all in the context of their story, and you’ll link it all back to how it’s going to help them solve their problem.
In closing
What I’m saying here is you are not the hero. Your customer is the hero. And if you invite your customer to be the hero of their story and if you guide them to a successful outcome, you will win their hearts, their minds, and their business.
It’s so much more than semantics. I’ve seen businesses skyrocket simply by telling the right story and embracing their role as a guide. I believe your business can do the same.
If you are ready to grow your business but need help inviting your customers into a compelling story that gets their attention and their business, give us a call. We’d be honored to help you identify all the critical points in your customer’s story and put them into action in your marketing collateral.
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From Anecdotes to Analysis